PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT FOR LANDFILL BIOGAS PROJECT OPPORTUNITIES Bahía Blanca Sanitary Landfill Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina Owned by Municipality of Bahía Blanca The City of Bahía Blanca seeks specific cooperation to advance the development of this project: • The City seeks technical assistance. • The project is willing to consider carbon financing. • The project owner does not have a contract to sell its carbon credits. SITE PHOTO SITE MAP DISCLAIMER: The information and predictions contained within this poster are based on the data provided by the site owners and operators and site visits conducted by U.S. EPA. The Methane to Markets Partnership cannot take responsibility for the accuracy of these data. It should be noted that conditions on landfills will vary with changes in waste input, management practices, engineering practices, and environmental conditions (particularly rainfall and temperature). The Methane to Markets Partnership does not guarantee the quantity or quality of available landfill biogas from the landfill site, which may vary from the values predicted in this report. OVERVIEW OF PROJECT OPPORTUNITY: Bahía Blanca Sanitary Landfill is owned by the Municipality of Bahía Blanca and has been leased to EVA S.A. Bahía Blanca Landfill accepts domestic and commercial waste from Bahía Blanca and the surrounding area. • The site opened in 1992 and accepts approximately 79,800 tonnes of waste annually. • Currently, the site has approximately 1.1 million tonnes of waste in place. • The landfill is expected to close in 2025 with an estimated capacity of 3.34 million tonnes of waste. • Preliminary biogas modeling estimates that 780 m 3 /hr of biogas at 50% methane with 73% collection efficiency can be recovered for capture and use in 2012. • Biogas recovery is estimated to increase to a peak of approximately 1,100 m 3 /hr in 2025.
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PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT FOR LANDFILL BIOGAS PROJECT OPPORTUNITIESBahía Blanca Sanitary Landfill
Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires Province, ArgentinaOwned by Municipality of Bahía Blanca
The City of Bahía Blanca seeks specific cooperation to advance the development of this project:
• The City seeks technical assistance.
• The project is willing to consider carbon financing.
• The project owner does not have a contract to sell its carbon credits.
SITE PHOTO SITE MAP
DISCLAIMER: The information and predictions contained within this poster are based on the data provided by the site owners and operators
and site visits conducted by U.S. EPA. The Methane to Markets Partnership cannot take responsibility for the accuracy of these data. It should
be noted that conditions on landfills will vary with changes in waste input, management practices, engineering practices, and environmental
conditions (particularly rainfall and temperature). The Methane to Markets Partnership does not guarantee the quantity or quality of available
landfill biogas from the landfill site, which may vary from the values predicted in this report.
OVERVIEW OF PROJECT OPPORTUNITY:
Bahía Blanca Sanitary Landfill is owned by the Municipality of Bahía Blanca and has been leased to EVA S.A. Bahía Blanca Landfill accepts domestic and commercial waste from Bahía Blanca and the surrounding area.
• The site opened in 1992 and accepts approximately 79,800 tonnes of waste annually.
• Currently, the site has approximately 1.1 million tonnes of waste in place.
• The landfill is expected to close in 2025 with an estimated capacity of 3.34 million tonnes of waste.
• Preliminary biogas modeling estimates that 780 m3/hr of biogas at 50% methane with 73% collection efficiency can be recovered for capture and use in 2012.
• Biogas recovery is estimated to increase to a peak of approximately 1,100 m3/hr in 2025.
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Biogas Generat ion Biogas Recovery
BIOGAS AND ENERGY POTENTIAL
Biogas Modeling Inputs:
• CH4 generation potential (Lo): 75 m3/Mg
• CH4 generation rate constant (k): 0.20 for fast-decay organic waste (e.g., food)0.04 for medium-decay organic waste (e.g., paper)0.01 for slow-decay organic waste (e.g., rubber)
• Percent methane: 50%
Other Landfill Physical/Operational Data
• Estimated annual waste acceptance rates from 1992 to 2025: 28,000 to 109,520 tonnes/year
• Waste disposal in 2006: 79,800 tonnes
• Waste disposal area: 48 hectares
• Depth of waste: 3 to 11 meters
• Current waste in place: Approximately 1.1 million tonnes
• Estimated final waste capacity at closure in 2025: 2.6 million tonnes
• Gas collection and control system: None; passive venting wells installed
Under contract to the U.S. EPA, SCS Engineers estimated the amount of biogas generated by the Bahía Blanca Sanitary
Landfill using the EPA and SCS models. Model input data for the preliminary assessment of a landfill methane capture and use
project were provided by CLIBA and collected during EPA site visits in December 2006.
Values for these modeling variables have been developed
based on the waste composition data, average annual
precipitation at Bahía Blanca, and the results of a pump test
conducted in June 2007. The estimate of landfill gas
generation at the site indicates that 100% of the gas cannot
be collected or flaring, given site conditions and collection
system limitations.
Achievable Gas Collection Efficiency = 71%
The projected landfill biogas recovery rate, along with a preliminary evaluation of available biogas utilization project options, indicates that a flaring-only project may be the most economically feasible option at the landfill. If revenues from emission reductions continue through 2018 at a price of $10 per tonne of CO2-equivalent methane, a flaring project is estimated to have an NPV of $270,000 and an IRR of 66.8% (assuming 75% financing of initial investment costs).
A small electricity generation project may be less economically attractive due to the low electricity tariffs in Argentina and limited renewable tariff or incentives for landfill biogas energy projects. Direct use may be an option with the recent opening of an asphalt plant next to the landfill.
PROJECT OPTIONS
Landfill Waste Stream
Garden waste
14%
Paper
6%
Inorganics
21%
Other
Organics
5%
Food waste
54%
Leachate Pond
ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS
Assuming that a gas collection and flaring system is installed in 2012, this landfill capture project has the opportunity to collect
and destroy an average of 4.2 million cubic meters of methane annually over the next 15 years. This is equivalent to reducing
emissions of more than 64,305 tonnes of CO2 annually.
The City of Bahía Blanca encourages those interested in project opportunities with Bahía Blanca Sanitary Landfill to contact them for more information. As part of the Methane to Markets Partnership, a pre-feasibility study has been prepared. This information is available online at the Partnership website: http://www.methanetomarkets.org/projects/index.aspx
Argentina Secretariat of Environment and Sustainable DevelopmentClimate Change GroupLic. Gabriel BlancoPhone:+54 11 4348-8648E-mail: [email protected]
United States Environmental Protection Agency Landfill Methane Outreach ProgramTom FrankiewiczPhone: +1 202-343-9232E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.epa.gov/lmop
